Teenagers and young adults could emerge as some of the biggest losers from the government's spending cuts, raising questions of inter-generational unfairness as key services and benefits are scrapped or diminished, charities have warned.

Early assessments by youth organisations suggest that hundreds of thousands of youngsters, especially those from deprived backgrounds, will find it more difficult to live independently, access vital social support services, or stay in education after the age of 16 as a result of cuts and policy changes made across a number of government departments announced in yesterday's spending review.

Changes to housing benefits, cuts to child benefit, the introduction of new social housing tenancies that will push rents up, the cutting of educational maintenance allowance which allows less well off youngsters to study for A-levels, and the closure of grassroots youth services and sport schemes will have a serious "multiple impact" on the lives and life chances of young people.

Alan Booth, communications director of the youth charity Catch22 said the cuts would hit young people disproportionately: "The government stated that it did not want future generations to pay for the mistakes of the current one. However,, looking at these cuts it is hard to see how they will not be. We all knew the cuts would be deep but the government seems to have ignored some of the most vulnerable young people.

"Decisions such as the reduction in the provision of social housing and the pinning of council rents to market values will further extend the gulf between some of the most disadvantaged young people, who now haven't a hope of getting their own home, and the rest of society."

Charities have predicted that severe local authority funding cuts and the removal of ringfenced protection for youth services will lead to councils pulling the plug on a range of non-statutory services, from early intervention programmes aimed at diverting the most vulnerable and hard-to-reach teenagers from crime and drugs, to school holiday activity schemes.

The Department for Education has also cut its non-schools budget by 12%, leading to "rationalising and ending" of centrally funded programmes for young people.

The recession has already caused serious hardship for young people with almost one in five aged 16-24 currently unemployed. The coalition cut the future jobs fund for the young long-term unemployed in June. Some 200,000 youngsters failed to get a place at university this year, and more are expected to be disappointed next year as the number of places are cut and students rush to enter higher education before higher tuition fees are introduced.

Dara Farrell, aged 17, a member of the UK Youth Parliament and chair of Kent Youth County Council, said while he did not oppose the maintenance of benefits for pensioners, such as winter fuel allowances and free TV licences, it was unfair that young people were carrying so much of the burden of the cuts.

"Working-class young people will be affected by the spending review more than any other group in society. Politicians say 'we are all in this together', but young people are in it more than anyone else."

The leader of Leeds City council Keith Wakefield stoked controversy after he predicted that the cuts could lead to riots by disaffected young people. He told the BBC: "Young people in this city now face a very bleak future. I'm sure we could well face the risk of civil disobedience in our city."